Actuality, necessity, and logical truth
Philosophical Studies 130 (3):437 - 459 (2006)
| Abstract | The traditional view that all logical truths are metaphysically necessary has come under attack in recent years. The contrary claim is prominent in David Kaplan’s work on demonstratives, and Edward Zalta has argued that logical truths that are not necessary appear in modal languages supplemented only with some device for making reference to the actual world (and thus independently of whether demonstratives like ‘I’, ‘here’, and ‘now’ are present). If this latter claim can be sustained, it strikes close to the heart of the traditional view. I begin this paper by discussing and refuting Zalta’s argument in the context of a language for propositional modal logic with an actuality connective (section 1). This involves showing that his argument in favor of real world validity his preferred explication of logical truth, is fallacious. Next (section 2) I argue for an alternative explication of logical truth called general validity. Since the rule of necessitation preserves general validity, the argument of section 2 provides a reason for affirming the traditional view. Finally (section 3) I show that the intuitive idea behind the discredited notion of real world validity finds legitimate expression in an object language connective for deep necessity. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,679 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesChristopher Gauker (1990). Semantics Without Reference. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 31 (3):437-461.
John P. Burgess (1999). Which Modal Logic Is the Right One? Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 40 (1):81-93.
Christopher Menzel (1998). Logical Form. In Edward Craig (ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge.
Adrian Miroiu (1999). Actuality and World-Indexed Sentences. Studia Logica 63 (3):311-330.
Andrea Iacona (2010). Validity and Interpretation. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 88 (2):247-264.
Joseph Diekemper (2004). Temporal Necessity and Logical Fatalism. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 104 (3):287–294.
Marc Lange (2005). A Counterfactual Analysis of the Concepts of Logical Truth and Necessity. Philosophical Studies 125 (3):277 - 303.
Edward N. Zalta (1988). Logical and Analytic Truths That Are Not Necessary. Journal of Philosophy 85 (2):57-74.
Michael Nelson & Edward N. Zalta (2012). A Defense of Contingent Logical Truths. Philosophical Studies 157 (1):153-162.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads54 ( #18,825 of 549,087 )Recent downloads (6 months)3 ( #25,722 of 549,087 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
